Is Your Wood Floor Coating Safe? A New Study Explains

Learn how to choose a safer wood floor coating, paint and other solvents

You’ve
likely heard of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). You may also know that breathing
elevated high levels of VOCs emitted from some products can cause health concerns.
But how important is it to choose low VOC products? And how do you evaluate if products
are low-emitting?

Over
the years, UL has conducted research into the off-gassing of VOCs from products
like wood floor coatings, furniture and paint and has developed GREENGUARD Certification, a program which
requires products to meet stringent emissions standards based on established toxicity limits for known hazardous
VOCs. GREENGUARD Certification
provides an easy way for
consumers to cut through confusing product claims and technical language to
make a healthier decision for their family.

“The lowest
emitting products are awarded GREENGUARD Gold Certification and products that go in the
home should be certified to these more stringent levels.” says Scott Steady, Senior Project Manager
of Indoor Air Quality at UL.

A
recent study by UL shows that many
wood finishes on the market release hazardous chemicals into the air including known carcinogens and reproductive toxins. Here’s what you need to
know about these and other VOCs.

VOCs Defined

VOCs are emitted as gases from certain consumer products
such as paints and varnishes, cleaning and cosmetic products, building
materials and household furnishings, says the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Concentrations of VOCs
indoors can be 2-to-5 times higher than outdoors – and up
to 1,000 times higher at peak levels. Many
VOCs can cause headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation, and dizziness in the
short-term, and some can cause more serious adverse
health effects, such as cancer, reproductive toxicity and damage to the liver,
kidney and central nervous system. Only
a small fraction of VOCs have been studied for these types of health effects, adds
UL.

The UL Study

When UL conducted extensive research on wood floor finishes, researchers found that 80 percent of
today’s
wood finishes emit some level of toxic VOCs. The researchers tested air samples
during application, in the hours after, and as long as seven days later.

Traditional
solvent-based floor coatings – defined as those using mixtures of organic solvents, such as turpentine, white
spirits, and other toxic solvents – off-gas over 60 chemicals, including
some linked to cancer and reproductive harm. For
instance, one of the many toxic chemicals released in high levels in the study
included 2-ethylhexanoic acid, which poses a significant safety risk to
pregnant women and women of child-bearing age.

The
study also included testing of traditional water-based coatings. These use water as the primary solvent, along with water-compatible
solvents, such as n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). NMP has been linked to birth defects
and miscarriage – and this group of wood floor finishes released toxic levels
of NMP throughout the test.

UL also tested advanced,
“clean” water-based coatings that do not use known toxic solvents. In the
study, Vermont Natural Coatings’ patented
PolyWhey® floor coating was among the products that met the
strict emissions standards of GREENGUARD Gold Certification.

“We have no known
carcinogens, no mutagens and no repro-toxins in our products,” explains Andrew
Meyer, President of Vermont Natural Coatings. “At the same time, we'll go head
to head with anybody's durability in the professional floor world and in the
DIY world.”

One potent reminder of VOC emissions is
the “new car smell” of upholstery or the chemical smell of traditional paint
thinners, paints and wood floor finishes. “When you walk through our [manufacturing]
facility [at Vermont Natural Coatings] when we're giving people a little tour,
we'll stop and say, ‘What do you smell?’ And they'll say, ‘Nothing,’” explains Meyer. “That’s when we've got 1,200-1,400
gallons of finish mixing in the tanks right next to them."

Tips
Most of the wood-floor finishes, paints,
paint thinners and other solvents on the market can create significant VOC exposure, according to the
EPA, which is why
choosing a product that meets GREENGUARD Gold Certification is critical.

“Especially from a do-it-yourselfer
perspective, this is very important, but it's also important if someone else is
finishing your floor,” Meyer points out. “Even if you're not in the
space for a few days, there's still potential for significant exposure, and the
[UL] research white paper shows that.”

Because
we’re exposed to toxic VOCs from a variety of sources, when choosing any
products coming into our homes, from paint to cleaning products to furniture,
looking for the GREENGUARD Gold Certification can help you limit health risks.
Find GREENGUARD Gold Certified products on ul.com/spot.